#Fal got a big ol' 'Astarion approves.' in the corner of his eyesight

[slusheeduck]

Fictober 2023 Day 29 - Prompt: "Do I look like I knew that?" Fandom: Baldur's Gate 3

“Counterclockwise, counterclockwise!”

“I know it’s counterclockwise!” Falerin’s hands shook as he hastily unthreaded the purple seam, Astarion and Karlach hovering anxiously over his shoulders as he did. Gale…well, Gale’s projection after he had dropped—had said that this needed to be done within two days, but with the Netherese orb in his chest? They were not about to waste a single second.

Falerin finally finished unthreading the seam, and he pulled out the flute and the letter.

“Okay, so you play the notes now,” Karlach said. Falerin quickly passed the flute to Astarion.

“Why me?” the elf asked.

“I don’t know how to play a fucking flute!” Falerin snapped back.

“And you think I…ugh, fine, I do. What are the notes?”

“D. E. A. D.”

“Oh, ha, because he’s…”

“Yes, Karlach, we know he’s dead!” Astarion snapped, then huffed and played the four notes. In a flash of flame that sent all three stepping back, a magma mephit appeared.

“I’ss k’cha t’chiss n’aga?” it asked.

“K’ha’ssji’trach’ash,” Karlach replied.

“Oh, you got the chh part right,” Falerin murmured. “Well done.”

“D’a jah’jah s’um!” The mephit looked pleased, then looked over them expectantly. Karlach nudged Falerin.

“Fal, the letter,” she whispered.

“Right!” He held out the letter, trying not to get too close.

“M’ul t’ha m’esc.” The mephit leaned forward, and it blew a long stream of sulfur-scented air onto the letter. With a puff of smoke, it changed to a scroll. Falerin stared at it as the mephit spoke again, before it somersaulted out of sight in another flare of magma.

“All that for a spell scroll?” he asked. “I was ready to talk to Mystra herself with all that!” He shot Gale’s corpse—still lying prone just a few feet away—a dirty look. He shook his head, then huffed and opened it, reading the spell. As the parchment in his hands dissolved, Gale took a gasping breath and sat up.

“My…my word, you did it!” he said, a wide smile on his face as he patted himself down. “Oh, it’s good to be alive.”

“It’s good to…it was your fault you died!” Falerin shot back. “You were the one who set off the trap!”

Gale’s giddiness at being alive subsided, and he gave a little cough as he pushed himself up to his feet. “Yes, well, shame on me, I suppose.”

“It was a little embarrassing,” Astarion added. “A book with gilded pages, in an abandoned tomb? It’s the definition of a honeypot.”

Gale rolled his eyes. “Do I look like I knew that?”

“Yes!” came the unanimous reply from the other three.

“You are literally the knowing-things guy,” Falerin said through his teeth. He rubbed his face. “Gods, that whole protocol was a nuisance. Why even go through all that for a scroll?”

Despite everything, Gale looked more than happy to explain. “I find that a healthy amount of theatrics—a voice from beyond, a magic flute, a friendly if highly combustible magma mephit—tends to make for a more compelling case.” He grinned at them. “If nothing else, I’m sure I piqued your curiosity.”

For a moment, the three others in the party just stared at Gale. Falerin finally blinked several times in succession.

“I’m gonna kill him,” he said.

There was just enough of a split-second pause for Karlach to grab him around the waist as he lunged, hands outstretched toward Gale’s throat.

“Easy, soldier!” she grunted out as Fal fought tooth and nail to get out of her grip, thrashing and cursing at Gale in his efforts to get at him.

“If you kill me now, you’ll just have to revive me again!” Gale said shakily, moving out of thrashing distance.

“Then I’ll kill you and bring you back with one of the fifteen other revivify scrolls we have between us!” Fictober 2023 Drabble Master Post

#fictober23 #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 #astarion #gale of waterdeep #karlach #I know it's a scroll of true resurrection #Gale points that out later once Fal stops trying to throttle him #Also this is where Astarion was like 'You know maybe I do like this guy as more than a safety measure' #Fal got a big ol' 'Astarion approves.' in the corner of his eyesight #Also Halloween finally got the better of me and I'm behind #Today's prompt should be done today or early tomorrow #But still! Impressed with myself